An almost welcomed change
by Micaela Beth Winchester
Summary: The winchester boys face their troublesome past once again
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One- Not this time Sammy.

Dean slept soundly on the bed, fully clothed, while Sam walked past and sat down on the couch with his laptop. Sam had found them a new gig, he knew it would be sensitive for Dean but his brother's feelings didn't bother him at that moment.

Dean rolled over and lifted his head slightly "Sam? What are you doing? What's the time?"

As he looked up from the screen to glance at Dean he pulled his wrist towards his face.

"Ahh almost half past 6" he said.

"Wow, overslept again." Dean rubbed his eyes and scruffed his hair. He swung his legs round til his feet hit the floor, stood up, stretched and walked off to the bathroom mumbling under his breath. Sam watched him go then went back to his computer.

Sam was concentrating so hard on the screen that he didn't notice Dean walk back into the room and almost trip over and land on the opposite side of the bed. He saved himself and quickly looked over to Sam to make sure he didn't see.

He cleared his throat "So where are we off to today Sam?"

"Well I have checked the papers and the net and there is definitely something going on back home." He sifted his eyes to look at Dean. "In Lawrence."

By this time Dean had pulled on his old faded jeans and had almost got his shirt on by the time Sam finished his sentence. He turned around and faced him with a _'why-now-why-this?_' look.

"Look Dean, I know you don't wanna do this bu..." he didn't finish.

"You're damn right I don't wanna go there. I can't go there again. Sam, you remember what happened last time. We went back home, stopped a spirit that was in our house, and mum appears. I told myself I would never; never go back to that house. But I did. But I can't do it, not this time Sammy." Sam could tell Dean was frightened, scared and slightly angry that he brought up the subject of home. He saw it in his eyes, heard it in his voice and could feel it in the air.

"Dean... I..." Sam started.

"Sam, just leave it. I don't want to go."

Sam perked up "Yeah and I don't like going to fairs with clowns but they are there so deal with it. We're going. If you don't wanna come fine. But I'm taking the car and going back to Lawrence." Sam was always a little nervous standing up to his brother but sometimes Dean's stubbornness was too much.

"Fine." Dean reluctantly agreed.

On the rare occasion Dean would let Sam drive, but this particular job had Dean in a mood. They drove in silence until they came upon the sign that read Lawrence 3.

"So." Sam started, he faced the windscreen. "It's about two blocks from the old house at the middle school. Apparently some of the younger kids have gone missing. Not just one by one by a whole group of them in one go. I'm thinking it was some kind of demon" As he finished he looked over at his brother. Concentration and anger covered his face. "Why do you have to be so difficult? I mean I know that Lawrence holds some painful memories but that's at the house." "He paused "You know what? You're a real jerk sometimes."

He slowly turned his head to the side, smiled and said "Bitch."

Sam knew that the tension between him and his older brother was gone. But he was still worried about Dean.

As they came upon Lawrence, everything appeared different. Everything was changed around.

"Where the hell are we Sam?" Dean queried.

"Lawrence, Kansas... What the hell... where is everything?" Sam looked out the window, trying to figure out why it was different.

The boys drove up their old street and there was their house. Everything about the house looked the same, even the address. They pulled up outside and looked. All of a sudden Mary walked out.

"Mum." The both said. Dean put his hand on the door and was just about to open it when Sam put his hand on his shoulder.

"How do we know it's really her?" He asked

"One way to know for sure." Dean replied

He pushed the door open and Mary looked up.

"Dean!" she exclaimed. "Sammy!" confusion washed over her face "How come you boys are home? Did your lunch break start early?"

"Uhh… yeah?" Dean looked at Sam with a _'what-the hell-is going-on?' _look. "So what's for lunch mum?"

"Dean Winchester you are almost twenty-three years old. Go inside look in the fridge and make something." Mary said with a firm joking voice.

Sam sat down at the table just as Dean walked through the door. Sam looked up and there was Dean wearing overalls half way down his waist with a white singlet underneath.

"What are you wearing?" the sandwich Sam was eating almost fell out of his mouth as he spoke.

"What do you mean? This is my work clothes. I'm going to go back to work after lunch." He scowled "and don't you have to get back as well? Mr rather-do-sport-than–fix-cars?

He looked at dean in a odd way but shook it off "Yeah, but I don't have to be at the school for at least half and hour." He stopped short. "I don't know what it is but it feels like there is something wrong at the school. Like something is going to happen or something has happened. Almost like an evil spirit of some kind." Sam looked as though he was a million miles away in thought.

"Dude, come on. Don't tell me you believe in ghosts and the devil or any of that crap."

"No. No. But there is just something that's bothering me a little."

"Well forget about it." Dean rushed his words. He wasn't in the mood to hear one of Sam's wack ghost stories.

Sam stayed at the table and finished his lunch and read the paper. His mum walked in and kissed the top of his head. A baby started to cry upstairs.

"Do you wanna get her or shall I?" She questioned.

"Huh? What? Who are we talking about?" Sam stumbled over his words.

"Your niece? Callie?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Where the hell are we?

Sam raised his head and looked at Mary

"Whose Callie?" he queried.

"Your brother's daughter. That's usually how nieces come about." Mary's humour was never really any good.

All of a sudden Dean came bursting through the door "Forgot my damn keys!" He stopped when he heard Callie. Then a smile washed over his face. "I'll get her."

He went up stairs. Sam's eyes followed until he was gone then he looked at Mary.

"He's crazy about that little girl." Mary said as she listened to them upstairs.

"Let's just hope she doesn't grow up like you two boys." She tapped Sam's shoulder and smiled, "It's nice to have a girl around." She was lost in her own world.

Dean came downstairs cradling the 5 and a half month child, who by this time had ceased crying. He was almost whispering to the child as he walked to the kitchen. Sam got up and followed him in only to see Dean sitting the baby on his arm with her back against his broad father-like chest.

"Hey Dean" Sam had startled him and Callie.

The baby was first to look around. She stared at her uncle with wide blue eyes then laughed her unique baby laugh.

"Hey man, I think she likes you. Favourite uncle Sam" he laughed.

"I'm her only uncle dude" Sam stated.

"That we know of" Dean joked.

Sam shook his head and looked at the baby.

"You wanna hold her?"

"Uhh yeah sure. Unless you want to." Sam was unsure. He subconsciously thought that he might hurt her because he was so big.

"Uhh look dude" Dean said as he handed a bottle to Sam, "I really got to go to work. I'll be back around 5. So if you know you're not going to be here tell mum"

"Yeah sure no prob." He looked at Callie while he put the bottle in her mouth.

It was almost ten past three when Dean looked up from underneath the hood of an old black camaro. Out of the corner of his eye he sees a pair of long legs in soft red heels. A smirk sneaks onto his face.

"Is it funny to see your wife at your work?" she questioned.

He spun around slowly and she walked up to him pushing him back against the car

"Not at all baby" He said as he closed the distance between his and her lips.

"Hey Dean! When can I expect that camaro?" yelled one of the workers.

He pulled away from Amy and wiped his lip.

"Uhh around four" Dean yelled back.

He leaned in to kiss her again and this time it was Amy who pulled away "I suppose I should get going and let you get back to work" she said with a sigh. Dean looked away then back at her.

"Yeah boss man might get a bit mad if we dirty the backseat" he smiled. She turned to leave and blew a kiss goodbye. Dean tapped her ass and watched her walk away. When she was out of sight he turned back to the car picked up and wrench and set to work. He wasn't working for even five minutes when a voice called his name.

He recognised the voice immediately.

"What is it Dad" he asked and continued on the car.

"I need to talk to you"

He rested his hand on the car and sighed "Well I'm busy. Come back at around five" and then continued working once again.

"No. It's important" John's voice was set in his '_marine command_' voice.

Dean spun around and faced his father. He put the wrench down and looked at the guy working closest to him. "I'll be back shortly. If he asks I'm at lunch"

The men walked from the garage and stood down the side of the workshop.

"Well what is it Dad?" he queried rolling his eyes.

"This isn't real Dean" John replied.

"What? What do you mean this isn't real? Feels real enough to me"

John shook his head as the words left Dean's mouth "No, a dijn is doing this"

"Gin? Dad have you been drinking?" Dean shifted his weight to his left foot

"No, not gin, dijn. A demon" John was desperately trying to get his son to believe him.

"Dad, this time I think you have lost it" Dean started to walk away before John grabbed his arm "Dean. This isn't your life. You're a hunter just like me and your brother. I know that you still have memories of being a hunter. Maybe they are a little fuzzy but they are real. This is not who you are supposed to be Dean and deep down you know it" John released his son's arm. Dean stood and stared at his father; taking in what he had just said then patted his shoulder and walked back to the garage. He picked up the wrench and attempted to start working. As soon as the wrench hit the engine he lifted his head and sighed. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and shook his head to rid the feeling.

Dean looked at the clock. Finally it was quarter to five. Knock off time.

"I'm out" he yelled as he put the monkey wrench in the toolbox.

On his way out to the car he pulled his overalls down to his waist, opened the door to the impala and pulled his phone from the glove box and dialled Sam.

"Yeah, Sam uhh where are you?" Dean spoke into the phone as he listen to the purr of his baby.

"I'm on my way home. Why?" Sam sounded a little worried.

"I need to talk to you. Dad came to see me today. I think you're going to want to hear it. I'll meet you at home" The words rushed out of his mouth and he closed the phone.

Sam was sitting at the kitchen table with his laptop waiting for Dean. Dean walked in and looked side to side until Sam caught his vision.

"So what is it?" asked Sam has he saw a large silhouette moving towards him.

"Dad thinks there are such things as ghosts and demons" Sam's mouth fell open.

"Dean. That's crazy you know that right?"

"Yeah I know. But he told me that this, all of this, wasn't real. Like it was make-believe or something" his face was tinted red. Almost like he was going to cry or get mad.

"Ok Dean, calm down. Let's see what I can dig up" Sam's fingers started typing away on the computer. After pacing a few steps Dean pulled up a chair and put his head in his hands. He didn't want to deal with this after working all day.

Dean must have been daydreaming as he didn't hear his father enter the house. When he came out of deep thought he got up to grab a beer from the fridge. He popped the cap and went to make his way into the living room but stopped when he heard his parents rushing whispered words. All Dean managed to catch was something about keeping him and Sam home. Another word he caught spun around his head. Dijn. He turned away and went back to Sam.

"Mom and Dad are onto something. Something I don't think they plan on sharing either"

"In philosophy, the brain in a vat is any of a variety of thought experiments intended to draw out certain features of our ideas of knowledge, reality, truth, mind, and meaning. It is drawn from the idea, common to many science fiction stories, that a mad scientist might remove a person's brain from the body, suspend it in a vat of life-sustaining liquid, and connect its neurons by wires to a supercomputer which would provide it with electrical impulses identical to those the brain normally receives. According to such stories, the computer would then be simulating a virtual reality, including appropriate responses to the brain's own output, and the person with the "disembodied" brain would continue to have perfectly normal conscious experiences without these being related to objects or events in the real world" Sam paused for a moment "dijn is a member of the jinn, a race of supernatural creatures. The word "jinn" literally means anything which has the connotation of concealment, invisibility, seclusion, and remoteness"

"Wait didn't we deal with one of these a while back" Dean questioned

"Actually, now that I think about it, yeah we did" Sam was getting in one of his excited voices but it would soon come to an end because both the boys couldn't remember how to get out of this one of a kind nightmare.

"Boys. What are you two up to?" their father had obviously startled them.

"You're not really our father. Our father died trading his live for mine" Dean backed up to Sam while he got out of his seat and stood behind his older brother as if he was being protected from a bully. "And our mother died in a house fire. Pinned to the ceiling when Sam was six months old" he added.

A gleam caught Sam's eye. There was a knife on the bench. Suddenly Mary caught Sam looking at it. She didn't move. Sam looked back at his parents and Mary looked back at Dean. Sam had had a sudden flashback of when Dean had been taken by a Dijn last time.

"Why did you guys have to dig and pull up buried memories?" Mary asked.  
With a scowl on his face Dean replied, "No, I've heard this before"

Quickly Sam picked up the knife and stabbed Dean and then himself. The boys fell to the floor.

Sam awoke to find his hands tied above his head and needle in his neck. He looked over at his brother. He still wasn't awake.

"Dean! Dean! Wake up man!" Sam mustered up all the energy he could get and put his foot in Dean's thigh. Sam watched Dean's expression. His face screwed up for a second and then relaxed. He started to move his head around then it shot up as if someone had put ice down his shirt.

Dean groaned "Sammy? Next time you decide to stab me, a little warning would be nice"

Sam laughed as he tried to free his hands. Then one slipped free. He pulled the needle from his neck and got his other hand free. Once he made sure he was needle free he helped Dean.


End file.
